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Monday, January 26, 2009

Resources on Innovation

For perhaps obvious reasons I have been getting a lot of requests lately for information on innovation and researcher productivity. On the assumption that everyone who emails me reads this blog, below is my best stab at a snap-shot of very useful resources

The Sigma Xi postdoc study in the states is one of the largest studies to data on postdoc careers, matching and related issues. Publications, surveys and so on are available on the site below.

The US Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR) gathers information from individuals who have obtained a doctoral degree in a science, engineering or health field. The SDR is conducted every 2 years and is a longitudinal survey that follows recipients of research doctorates from U.S. institutions until age 76. Data from this survey are available on the SRS Web site and on the SESTAT Web site. Several papers have been written with this data including the one linked below.

For those interested in causal evaluation of job programmes, training programmes and so on, see the recent economist article “International Bright Young Things” which places causal field experiments informed by behavioural economics at the heart of the future of economics

Esther Duflo is one the leaders in this field. Examples of her experimental work is linked below. This should be studied closely by anyone who is setting up recovery initiatives if they really want to be sure that they are having an effect